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Roulette chips: colour, value and the rules around them
Roulette is the one casino game where the chips are personal. Blackjack and baccarat use the house's cash chips; roulette gives each player their own colour, because when eight people are betting on the same 37 numbers, the dealer needs to know at a glance whose £5 is on 17. Here is how the system works and the handful of rules that come with it.
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Colour chips
When you buy in, the dealer hands you a stack of chips in one colour. Nobody else at the table has that colour. The chips carry no printed value; their value is whatever you agreed when you bought in, and the dealer marks it by placing one of your chips on the wheel rim with a small value token, called a lammer, on top. Everyone at the table can see that blue is £1 and purple is £5.
Setting the value
You choose it, within the table's range. "Ones" means each chip is £1; "fives", £5. If you buy £100 of ones you get a hundred chips; £100 of fives, twenty. Pick a value that matches the stake you intend to place per bet, not per spin, because you will be putting single chips on several positions.
Cash chips at the table
You can also bet with standard casino cash chips, the ones with printed values. Some players do, especially for larger bets. The dealer will usually ask you to use colour chips if it causes confusion with another player betting the same denominations in the same area.
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Placing and stacking
A chip on a number is a straight-up. On a line, a split. On a corner point, a corner. Stacks of your colour can be any height within the maximum. If your chip ends up somewhere you did not intend, tell the dealer before "no more bets" and they will move it; after the call, it stands where it is.
When chips get mixed
Two players' chips on the same spot are stacked in the order placed; the payout goes to each colour separately. If your chip is knocked by someone else's, the dealer sorts it out by colour. This is the whole reason the system exists, so let the dealer do it rather than reaching in.
Colouring up
Done at the table. Wait for the spin to settle, push your colour chips forward and say "colour up" or simply "cash me out". The dealer counts, announces the total for the cameras and gives you cash chips. Take those to the cage. Leaving the table with colour chips in your pocket is a small loss: they cannot be cashed and the next dealer at that table will not know their value.
Online
None of this exists. The chip selector sets the value per tap, every chip on screen is yours, and the balance settles automatically. The habit worth keeping from the casino version is choosing a chip value before the first bet and sticking to it.
Before you ask
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Why does roulette use coloured chips?
So the dealer can tell whose bet is whose on a crowded layout. Each player at the table has a unique colour, and the value of that colour is set when they buy in and marked on the wheel rim.
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Can I use my roulette chips at another table?
No. Colour chips belong to the table that issued them. Colour up before you leave; the dealer exchanges them for cash chips that work anywhere in the casino.